Music Training for Tots May Boost Brain

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This study was published as an abstract and presented at a conference. These data and conclusions should be considered to be preliminary until published in a peer-reviewed journal.

SAN DIEGO -- Learning music at a very young age was linked with neural maturation in the brain regions responsible for language and executive function in adulthood, researchers reported here.

Compared with children who started learning to play an instrument at age 7 or older, those who had musical training before age 7 demonstrated increased thickness in the right superior temporal gyrus and precuneus at ages 19 to 21 based on MRI scans, according to PhD candidate Yunxin Wang, of Beijing Normal University in China and Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge, and colleagues.

These results indicated strengthened regions related to executive function, language, auditory processing, and self-awareness, Wang said during an oral presentation at the Society for Neuroscience meeting.

However, she added that younger children have more potential for greater change and that brain maturation peaks at age 7. She cited as examples composers Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Ludwig van Beethoven, Frederic Chopin, and Franz Schubert, all of whom started training before age 7.

To study the impact of music training on brain anatomy, the authors reviewed MRI scans of 48 Chinese young adults (40 were female) who had formal music training for at least 1 year. Training ranged from 1 to 16 years.

Participants were grouped by age at onset of training, including those who started before age 7 and those who started at age 7 or older. Mean age at onset of training was 7.58 years.

The researchers measured cortical thickness and gray matter volume across the whole brain, then conducted a regression analysis with age of onset as a predictor variable for brain anatomy. Outcomes were controlled for sex, years of training, and intracranial volume.

Regression analysis showed that starting to learn music at a younger age was related to a thicker right caudal anterior cingulate cortex and larger volume of right lingual gyrus, as well as thinner cortex and smaller volume in the right lateral occipital region.

Wang said her study was limited by inclusion of only Chinese young adults and a lack of control for language, but that an ongoing follow-up at MIT will include a cross-cultural sample that adds English speakers.

Session moderator Gottfried Schlaug, MD, PhD, of Harvard Medical School, noted that the study did not establish whether this was a chicken-or-egg relationship. He cautioned that "future studies will have to show if children with a well-developed brain will be better at tasks related to music." He added that "intense training over time has been shown to change brain structure."